Carlos Beltran's playing days are over, but don't be surprised if he resurfaces in a big league dugout sometime in the near future.
Beltran -- who announced his retirement on Monday -- has spoken before about his desire to manage a team at some point, and while he doesn't know when that day will come, he's open to the idea of it being sooner rather than later.

The Yankees have an opening, and while he hasn't been identified as a candidate to this point given the uncertainty over his playing status, that has now been resolved.
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"At some point in my career, I would love to have the opportunity to manage," Beltran told MLB.com in his first interview since announcing his retirement. "With the experience that I have in the game of baseball, the times I've played, different teams that I've played for, I've gotten to see different ways to do things in the clubhouse and for the players. How to motivate them, how to impact them in a way where they continue to improve. I would love that opportunity, for sure."
Could Beltran see himself jumping right into such a job if the Yankees reached out to speak with him this week? Beltran has said he wants to spend more time with his wife, Jessica, and their three children, but his family is based in New York, making the Yanks one of the few ideal jobs for his situation.

"I had the opportunity to play with the Yankees for three years and I enjoyed myself, big-time," Beltran said. "I appreciated the way I was treated; my family, the relationship with [Yankees GM] Brian [Cashman]. I don't know what they're looking for. Experience as a manager, I don't have that. But I have the passion for the game, I have the knowledge of being able to play the game for a long time. I get along well with the players, with my teammates; I've always taken that to heart, trying to impact my teammates in a positive way.
"I would not discount anything; you're talking about the New York Yankees. You're not just talking about any team in baseball. Not taking anything away from any other organization, but the Yankees are a team that anyone would love to put on that uniform and manage that ballclub."
Cashman is looking for a manager who can relate to the players, deal well with the New York media, and work with the front office and the analytics department. The first two seem like easy ones for Beltran, who has long been one of the most popular players in his clubhouse with both teammates and media types.

As for the third, Beltran noted that one unexpected bonus of playing for the Yankees and Astros during the final four years of his career was his exposure to analytics, something for which he's become a huge proponent.
"I don't see teams winning these days without analytics; it's a huge part of baseball," Beltran said. "The human factor of the game is important, but analytics will position players to be more consistent making plays or helping pitchers attack hitters where it's not a guessing mode, but in advantage mode. It's valuable information. You make moves based on data. If I told you there was all this data for your financial investments, would you use it? Of course you would. Same thing in baseball."

Beltran even found himself serving as a liaison at times this season between the Astros' analytics department and the clubhouse, stressing the importance of the information to some of his young teammates.
That newfound love for the numbers side of the game has only added to Beltran's desire to manage, knowing how integral analytics have become in that job.
"Coming up in 1998 and still playing in 2017, I've gotten to see the game evolve in a way where people are playing a smarter game now," Beltran said. "There's less guessing. If the data says a guy hits the ball to this area 75 percent of the time, you're going to move the guys to cover that area. If he hits the ball the other way, that's fine. At the end of the day, you play the percentages. I never thought five years ago that I would get caught up in it, but now that I see the results and the impact it's had on the game, I think the data is a huge part of baseball."